SSD for sata 2?

Associate
Joined
11 Jun 2006
Posts
1,569
I want to upgrade to the best bang per buck SSD. 840evo? m4? pros'cons?

Thinking around 256gb but I have an intel dx58so and think Im limited to sata 2?

Will that severely reduce my speed?

I need an SSD that is cheap enough but just as quick and reliable!

Intel i7 920
intel dx58so
6gb ram
1tb hdd
NEED AN SDD

Thanks
 
Theoretically sata II will restrict your speeds, but basically in benchmarks. Real world you'll see enormous benefits, should be one of the most satisfying upgrades. Personally I'd go with an evo but thats based off specs as I'm yet to get my hands on one. Think I may be adding one to my own (sata II) desktop soon.

Honestly going to an SSD is such a nice upgrade... don't fret at all about the limits of SATA. Yes, you'll lose some theoretical read speed but it'll still be quite close to max and an ENORMOUS step up from a mechanical disk.

Edit: Currently the 840 (normal, non-evo, non-pro) version appears to be on offer & in stock while the evo is out of stock... perhaps worth going this way as its more GB/£ and still a cracking drive.
 
Last edited:
I agree with above.

The real word difference in speed between SSDs is usually hardly noticeable. Even using SATA II does not have much of an effect.

If you can get a Samsung non pro at the right price, then it's a very good option. I've compared an 840 250gb non pro to an 840 Evo 250gb in my own PC. Despite the Evo having better specs (especially write speed), I really can't tell any difference. The Evo might be a smidge quicker booting up and a tiny bit more responsive, but that's probably me wanting to believe that it is. Yes, if I were to copy a very large file to the non-pro, or a lot of smaller files, I would probably notice that it takes a second or two (or even more) longer. For the amount of times I do that, it's not worth worrying about. I would have thought that I'd notice a difference when installing software (or even Windows itself), but I can't say that there is any difference.

The truth is that for the vast majority of users, any modern SSD is going to be fast and probably as reliable as a mechanical drive. If you want to search for the best specifications, by all means do so, but it is unlikely that you'll notice any difference between decent SSDs. You may as well look around for an SSD at a good price, and for a make/model with a decent reputation. Samsung and Crucial are the two brands that I`ve mainly used, and both have been 100% reliable and all of their SSDs go like mud off a shovel.
 
Thanks for the advice, hopefully they we will be compatible with my motherboard,breadna few problems with ssds and this motherboard. Will look out for the best deal available. Will check the older Samsung out
 
non pro will be fine in that board,no need to worry about slow writes as max you'll see on sata2 is 250-260mbps read/write,maybe slightly more on marvell sata3 ports if you have them

just get the cheapest out of the non pro or the evo imo
 
Not a bad idea to go for the cheapest, although if there isn't much price difference, you may as well go for the Evo.

If you ever upgrade your system and get Sata III, then you'll benefit from the Evo's faster write speed.

When I say "benefit", I mean that you'll know that your write speed is faster than a non-pro, but you probably won't notice.

I'm currently working on a PC with an Nvidia Sata II interface and Samsung 840 250GB non-pro attached. Disk access and installing apps seems very nearly as fast as it would be on a Sata III interface. It's the fast access time that SSDs deliver that make the bigest difference over hard drives. A faster rated read speed doesn't really translate into real word experience, and a fast write speed even less so. Benchmark your SSD, and you might realise that it's faster or slower than another model, use it normally, and you probably won't.
 
Back
Top Bottom